


Seis Capítulos

by IceDevice



Category: Bleach
Genre: Fix Fic, Fix-It, Spitefic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2018-12-26 14:24:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12060819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceDevice/pseuds/IceDevice
Summary: When reading/watching Bleach's Hueco Mundo arc, I felt not only like the Espada got so very shafted, but Grimmjow personally was being punished by the author. This is both a spite fic and a fix fic to correct that. Runs along the same sequence of events as HCMR.





	Seis Capítulos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A drastic rehaul of Ichigo vs. Grimmjow and Shinji vs. Grimmjow. Grimmjow tanks much of the damage taken until the end of the battle, and even then, the soul reapers finds themselves wiped out with ease. Featured here are the new bankai name and attacks and attack calls I gave Ichigo. Warning--there are a lot of dashes here. It's also pretty damn long, mostly because it's a fight chapter. Future non-combat chapters won't be so long.

"A bankai, huh, soul reaper? Did you forget how your little bankai couldn't do shit to me the last time we fought?"

 _You just wait, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez_ , Ichigo thought, _you've got a nasty surprise coming to you. This won't be like last time._

"I'm gonna show you just how much I've changed this past month." Ichigo answered aloud, a vengeful smile tugging its way onto his face. He swung his black-bladed bankai around to face his enemy, then pulled his free hand up to his face. Just as he'd been taught, he summoned the Hollow energy within him, the source of the spirit energy that radiated darkness, and gripped it the way he'd been taught to do. It manifested at his will, drawing over his face like a veil and solidifying into a mask. For a few moments, Ichigo saw only black, and then the eyeholes settled into place, his vision tinged with a red around the edges. When he next looked through them, he saw that Grimmjow's face had lost its usual calm smirk in favor of a look of confusion.

"Eh? The hell is that? ...A Hollow mask? What do you think you're doing?"

"Sorry. I don't have time to explain it to you." Already he could feel the swift drain of energy that summoning his Hollow mask initiated. He had eleven seconds.

In an instant, in which he was blinded by his own speed, flash step took him to the space three feet away from Grimmjow, his arms already raised into the air to swing down Kurotaiyo Zangetsu. Time seemed to slow down, and in the fraction of a second free of his assault, he saw that the Arrancar's eyes had widened. _Yes_.

" _KUROMIKADZUKI!_ "

Ichigo swung downward, the black blade wreathed in a shadowy energy which it sent forward in a monstrous wave, crescent-shaped in the single instant before it hit its target. Ichigo could tell by the way the energy wrapped around its impact site and continued forward that Grimmjow had been pushed back in the air. Not as much as he'd have hoped for, but nonetheless, time to observe his handiwork and savor the payback.

**_Ten._ **

The black energy began to dissipate. Ichigo peered forward.

No. No, _no, that can't be right_ \--

"What's wrong, then? Isn't that the same thing you hit me with last time we fought?" Came the confident voice from behind the slowly vanishing aura of shadow disappeared from around Grimmjow. Ichigo's 'payback' had accomplished little more than the Mikadzuki had the last time he'd swung it at Grimmjow. There was a little more blood, a slight trickle of it coming from the hairline and a bit of it on his wrist, but the overall results weren't much more than a bad scrape or burn.

**_Nine._ **

"What's with that surprised look on your face, _Kurosaki_?" Grimmjow shot forth, arrogant smirk back in place on his face. "I dunno why you look like that. That's the same power you attacked me with, and the same attack. Did you expect it to do anything different?"

**_Eight._ **

"Because you know what they say about doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. They call it _insanity_."

Ichigo's mind was reeling. _No different, no different.... Is that really all the improvement I made in an entire month of hard work? Just a few more scratches?_   No! He could do this, he just had to think! He'd already wasted precious seconds, he needed to figure out a way to do something! His Mikadzuki blast had done nothing of note, but perhaps a direct hit with the blade of his sword would? That seemed unlikely... his blasts all packed much more power behind them than his sword swings thanks to the way they condensed his spiritual pressure field into the wave of energy. But then again, these Arrancars had _hierro_ , skin as strong as steel. Perhaps the slash of a cutting blade was needed to pierce a defense like this? If he could just...

"A'course, the insanity I'm talking about is--"

**_Seven._ **

Ichigo concentrated. He needed to initiate the launch of his Mikadzuki, but without firing off like he usually did. It was difficult, but he forced his spirit energy to comply. There was a feeling of strain tightening in his forearms and running up the length to his shoulders. Careful, careful. There. The black blade in front of him was now wrapped in the same roiling dark energy that constituted his Kuromikadzuki. If he combined that energy with the swing of his sword itself, maybe he could make some progress.

"--thinking twice that you could beat me--"

Ichigo flashed forward again, and swung from the side. Grimmjow was not as distracted and unprepared as he seemed, and this time his arm came upward to block the attack, but Ichigo swung to his left, aiming for his weaker side. To Ichigo's grand relief and satisfaction, he felt give. Before his eyes, the fuming black blade sent Grimmjow flying. A _crash_ , then a second _crash_ , then a third, indicated that Grimmjow had been sent through two buildings until slamming into one behind him. Ichigo was hot on the trail, lunging forward to cross the distance and to attack again.

_**Six.** _

His next downward slash with the 'full moon blade' was stopped short with a jolt, and Ichigo thought he felt the resistance put a crack in the bones of his forearm. Grimmjow was holding his arm just under the wrist, despite being in a crater pressed into the side of the building wall he'd been launched into. 

 _Shit...!_ Ichigo thought, experiencing several things at once. He saw that his blow, while not of incredible impact, had done more damage, blood flowing out of a large gash on Grimmjow's left side. He also saw that the Hollow's right hand was holding his own, glowing, and suddenly he was reeling backward. Grimmjow had shoved him away, and before Ichigo could right himself, some sort of projectile or blast, small but powerful, had slammed in into his blade and blasted away the Hollow energy coating it. Now he was stepping backwards, trying to regain his balance, when--

" _Huauh--_ "

Ichigo felt blood in his throat, forced up from a sudden stabbing impact. He'd been impaled on Grimmjow's hand, now somewhere within his intestines. 

_SLAM!_

Ichigo felt air leave his lungs as he was sent flying backwards, bent with the force of the kick that had been delivered to his stomach just above the recent wound. 

**_Five._ **

_C'mon...c'mon....get up!_ he thought to himself. Before air could flow back into his lungs, he had to act. He knew that this would not be a reprieve, that Grimmjow would be waiting for him and would strike him again if he did not act _now_ \--

"Sh-" Ichigo starts, the rest of the word lost along with some blood into the air rushing past his face. Was he too late? " _Shingetsu_!"

He spun in the air, a half-cartwheel thanks to the air force he still hadn't overcome yet, and his shining black sword left a black trail in its wake, a full circle of shadow in contrast to the usual gleaming white. When he continued the arc, pulling his arm over his shoulder before letting it swing with far more force, sending the wave out in a 360º ring of energy. The wide wave flew out, getting wider as it traveled...

Success. His efforts had revealed that his assumption was correct. He finally got his feet underneath him, skidding to a halt on the reishi in the air. He saw the blue-haired Arrancar flying backwards, borne on the black wave. It wasn't over yet--even if he was using the same attacking power, he was using it a constant rate, and was much tougher and faster. _He could win this_. Even if Grimmjow was stronger and faster, he just had to react in time.

_**Four.** _

He lifted his blade over his head again, re-sheathing it with black Hollow energy. If the small taste of Grimmjow's fighting style he'd glimpsed before was appropriate, he would cross the distance with _sonido_ \--

\--a flash of blue and white--

_Got him!_

" _Getsukakō!!_ " Ichigo, his blade now covered in a cylindrical energy sheath, much like a bat or a club, was already descending, crashing down on that head of blue hair with tremendous force, a miniature explosion blasting outward at the point of impact. His target's lunge forward was halted in its tracks, and he was sent flying downward. A tremendous crash sent the reishi in the air shaking and Ichigo with it, and caused a cloud of earthen dust and shrapnel to be forced up into the air, covering his vision.

'Moon Crater', a new attack he'd created during his training with the Visoreds. It turned his blade, a weapon that normally sliced up opponents, into a blunt rod with amplified power and impact.

He had no time to survey the damage, all he knew was that the attack had been effective and that he had to press his advantage, finish this before it had a chance to get out of hand...

**_Three._ **

Ichigo again raised his blade, pointing it downward in preparation to stab in contrast to its usual upward aim, and poured every ounce of energy he could drag out of himself into it, as fast as he could. This was the strongest attack he had. After smashing open his opponent's guard with the Moon Crater, he could proceed to cut through any remaining defense and impale them with a blade wrapped in enormous quantities of condensed spirit energy. This thrust pierced all defensive powers where others failed. His blade, which should have been sheer darkness, was now a mixture of glowing white and inky blackness, as his zanpakuto's power fought to demonstrate itself even past his Hollow power. Once he was ready, he launched himself downwards, where Grimmjow was lying in another, much larger and deeper crater than last time.

" _GETSUGA TENSHO!!!_ "

Wind whistled in Ichigo's ears as he plunged towards the earth, flying downwards towards his target, praying he was fast enough and didn't miss his mark, the energy along the blade of Kurotaiyo Zangetsu growing in strength along the way, until finally--

_SLAM!_

Something happened as Ichigo hit, some flash of movement although he couldn't make out what it was. An outpouring of bright white light erupted as energy overflowed the blade, being sent down its length to force its way through any barrier, any defense whether artificial or flesh. Ichigo could make out the silhouette of a torso and head, though could not quite see what was happening until the outpouring ceased.

_No._

**_Two._ **

_No, no, no, no, NO!_

He couldn't believe his eyes. He refused to believe them, because if they told the truth, he'd already lost. He was standing, but half-straddling, the Arrancar's horizontal body, both hands clasped around the handle of his sword, still pointed downwards. The tip of the blade was embedded in Grimmjow's chest, true, but the wound barely looked deep enough to consider. Wrapped around and gripping his blade was Grimmjow's single hand, holding it as if he had caught it mid-thrust. Could he really have done that? Caught and forcibly stopped Ichigo's strongest attack, while he was in bankai and wearing his Hollow mask on top of it?

 _No no no **fuck**_ \--

For the second time, he found himself being kicked away, this time in the upper torso and into the air, stopping himself at twenty feet. His body felt worn and tired, and he tensed, barely ready for attack the moment he heard the tell-tale sound of _sonido_ , only to find Grimmjow staring at him from about ten feet away.

**_One._ **

No sudden assaults were happening; it seemed as though Grimmjow wanted to say something. In the moment before he opened his mouth, Ichigo tried to analyze just how much wear and tear he'd managed to inflict on the Espada. Small wounds from the first Kuromikadzuki, a larger wound opened on the left side by the blade-wrapped one. Somewhere between there and his final assault, the right side of Grimmjow had suffered some visible burns and was bleeding, and the wound on his head from the first strike had opened into a gushing, bloody gash, likely from his Moon Crater. Overall, more damage than he'd done last time....but none of it seemed to have fazed him all that much.

"Well, I have to say you've surprised me, _Ichigo_." Grimmjow said, grinning a psychotic, sadistic grin that promised pain, hand reaching for the sword with the S-shaped tsuba tucked into his waistband. "I can't grab your blade anymore. I guess that means I should start--"

**_Zero._ **

Crack. He felt it an instant before he heard it. His vision, tinged with red, flashed dark for a moment, and then his mask broke. His mask shattered into a dozen pieces, falling away from his face and vanishing into small wisps of black smoke before they could drop onto anything. He was left staring at Grimmjow, his vision back to its normal shade and tint, and suddenly he felt as though he'd been run over by a train. Where had all this exhaustion come from?

 _I.....can't....._ are the only thoughts running through his head as he comes to the realization that his time has run out. His time has run out, his mask has crumbled, he's _fucked_. There was a shocked look on Grimmjow's face that quickly turned to a wicked grin. _Shit..._

" _Augh!_ "

Pain crashed into his side as he felt a leg covered in steel skin slam into him from the right, launching him through the air again. Something inside him was crushed, he's sure of it, along with a couple cracked ribs. Only vaguely is he aware of the wind whistling through his hair and coat. He wants to raise his sword, wants to feel power flowing through his muscles again instead of this burning pain and exhaustion, but he could barely move.

" _Yaah!_ " came the triumphant cry from above him as a knee hit him squarely in the back, shooting another blast of agony through his body before sending him hurtling downwards towards the earth the same way he'd just done to Grimmjow, only this time--

 _Crash_. His vision is blanking out at periods, but he doesn't need it because he can tell by the way his cheek feels like it's been scraped off that his face is now planted in dirt. Or concrete. The dirt under the concrete, actually. _Come on_ , he thought, _get up. It's not over yet_. A shadow fell over him and he looked up, finding bright blue eyes staring down at him over that same sadistic grin. Ichigo attempted to drag himself up, at least on his knees, but only managed as far as pushing himself up on his palms.

"I have to admit, Ichigo, you did some damage. But there was never any doubt of the outcome. _You were no match for me_."

A flash of shining steel, and more searing agony shot through him, this time from his right hand. Ichigo opened his mouth to cry out, wanting to pull his hand away, but he couldn't: Grimmjow had slammed his blade straight through flesh and bone and impaled his palm, pinning it to the concrete below. At least two feet of the sword was stabbing the earth beneath. Ichigo tried to pull his hand and the sword out in one, but found that on top of being impossible, it hurt like hell. He then attempted to pull the sword out with his left hand, but before he could attempt to loosen the blade, he saw the red light.

He looked up. Grimmjow was holding his open palm directly at Ichigo's gazing face, a small red orb gaining strength. Despite himself, despite his furious determination to _survive_ , he closed his eyes at the last moment. Behind his eyelids, a bright flash lit. He flinched.

....

" _Ichigo_ _!_ "

He opened his eyes. Above him, Grimmjow was....staring at his arm? The arm that had previously been ready to blast Ichigo with a cero was now covered in ice.

"R-Rukia?"

" _Tsugi no mai! Hakuren!_ "

Grimmjow looked to his side, and Ichigo followed the glance, but barely caught what happened, it occurred so fast. One instant, Grimmjow was standing there ready to blow his brains out, and the next, he was covered in a large wave of ice. He heard the pattering of feet on the ground, and returned his gaze in the direction he'd been looking before to find Rukia rushing towards him, _Sode no Shirayuki_ drawn. No sooner had she arrived than she grabbed hold of Grimmjow's sword, attempting to pull it free from the earth and Ichigo's hand.

" _Aaaagh!_ Don't pull so hard!"

"You idiot! What were you thinking, taking him on again alone!" Rukia said past gritted teeth as she attempted to wriggle the sword free from the earth. Ichigo was still absorbing what had happened. She had frozen Grimmjow solid, and when he looked back at the figure covered in ice, it didn't seem as though he was coming out of it. He felt a growing shame that, in around a second and a half, she had accomplished what he couldn't in eleven. Nor did he have a defense for his actions with the state he was in.

"This is what I've been training for! Shut up and just pull me free!"

"A month of training doesn't mean you're suddenly capable of taking on the guy who beat you to a pulp! What did you think would happen, that you'd smash him and make him sorry?"

 _Well..... maybe?_ Ichigo felt his face redden, which was a feat considering blood had already been rushing to it from the pain of trying to dislodge the sword from his hand. The blade seemed more difficult to remove than it should've been considering she wasn't injured; it must have pierced something solid. Hopefully it wasn't a pipe.

"You fool." she sighed, bracing herself and giving the sword another pull. "I've been training too. I understand that you wanted to get payback, but you should've waited! At least if not with me, then with someone more capable! Come on, let's get you out of here!" 

_Crack._

The sound caught both of their attentions. It had come from the ice.

_Smash!_

Ice chunks careened off the side of Ichigo's head, and ice shards pierced his cheek, leaving yet more bleeding wounds. The ice exploded in every direction, and he saw _Sode no Shirayuki_ fly by his ear.

" _Did you seriously think you could kill me by freezing me under a thin sheet of ice?! YOU'RE AN IDIOT!!!_ "

Grimmjow had freed himself from the ice and knocked away Rukia's zanpakuto before grabbing her head, and now a familiar red light was glowing from between his fingers. 

"NO!" Ichigo yelled, trying with renewed vigor to free himself, "NO! STOP! GET AWAY FROM HER--"

Another flash of white light flew by, and Grimmjow dropped Rukia. As Ichigo looked on, mouth still open in shock, he noticed smoke rising from Grimmjow's arm. Some of it was from the cancelled cero, but a small wisp of smoke was rising from a patch of burned flesh on his forearm. Grimmjow's attentioned turned towards the direction the blast had come from, as did Ichigo's. Were they saved?

* * *

The blast seemed to have gotten the Arrancar's attention. That was good. Shinji hovered in the air, surveying the damage that had been done by the Espada. Ichigo was an idiot, barreling in here thinking he was ready after repeated warnings, and now he's gone and gotten someone else dragged in, too. Luckily, he wasn't dead yet, and Shinji wouldn't be so easily added to the body pile. 

"You just going to stand there, Arrancar?" he called down, drawing his zanpakuto.

There were a few moments more of eye contact. The blue-haired one, 'Grimmjow' apparently, was staring up at him, scrutinizing him. 

"I suppose I have to get rid of you too before I finally kill this one?" came the reply, with a glance back down at Ichigo that Shinji didn't like. "Man, you sure are popualar today, Kurosaki. People just queuing up to die for you today."

"Grimmjow, you basta-- _aaaugh_!" came Ichigo's strangled response. The Arrancar had grabbed his sword and yanked it out, mangling Ichigo's hand in the process.

 _Well, at least that'll keep him from charging into fights like this again......who are we kidding, Inoue's going to heal it back within the day_ , Shinji thought, readying himself as the Hollow came flying up at him. He braced, pressing his hand against the flat of his blade to block the incoming assault. Grimmjow wasted no time leaping up to where they were, flying at him with sword rearing back for a strike. No use messing around, he'd caught the latter moments of Ichigo's fight with this guy and knew better than to try testing the waters.

Still, the Espada's blade hit much harder than expected. Shinji gave ground, choosing to surrender his position and retreat rather than be forced back and put under pressure. With that first strike over with, he lunged--only for a gash to open up on his shoulder, having failed to block the next assault, or the one after that, which was a boot to the face. He felt himself fly backward at high speed, managing to right himself in the air just in time to crash against a building wall feet-first, depressing it and putting several cracks in it.

"Too bad." came the comment from the blue-haired one some distance away. "I didn't manage to straighten your teeth with that kick."

 _Always some damn comment about my teeth._ "Wanna try it again?" Shinji shot back, resisting the urge to spit and see if one of those teeth came out. This Arrancar hit like a train.

"I would, but I don't see the point. We both know that you can't compete with me at this level. We also both know that you have the same power Kurosaki does--I can sense it in your spiritual pressure, it's no use hiding it."

"Fair enough," he said, wiping his mouth with his left hand and positioning it over his right temple. He drew the veil over his face, solidifying it into his own pharaoh-style Hollow mask, and felt his power increase, a rush of darkness pumping through his veins. _Ichigo and Kuchiki down there better be running away while I'm doing this for them_ , he thought, before he lunged.

The two of them crossed swords, blocking and swinging and parrying at high speed. Despite only having one arm, Grimmjow was an excellent swordsman, Shinji had to hand it to him. At first, he tried focusing attacks on the side with no arm, trying to pressure him, or at least keep him on the defensive, which failed, and resulted in a rather close call when the Arrancar had thrusted his blade straight for Shinji's face, cutting off a piece of his mask near his brow in the process. He tried feints, repeating and redoubling his pressure on Grimmjow's weak side only to lunge at his right arm or leg, and found those attempts similarly blocked. 

 _This isn't working_ , he thought, as he was steadily pushed back. Even with his Hollow mask on, he still felt like his sword would break trying to deflect Grimmjow's blows. He proved his speed again when Shinji opted to instead get closer, trying to let the Arrancar's blade slide back off from his own instead of outright forcing it back, and lunged. This time the tactic worked, if only barely, opening up a gash across the Espada's chest just above the place where Ichigo had stabbed him with _Getsuga Tensho_.

"Speed, strength, skill, none of them are lacking." he said past gritted teeth, hearing his own voice distorted by his inner Hollow's echo. "I have to hand it to you, this is impressive." All those wounds didn't seem to affect his performance anymore than the loss of an arm, either.

"Neither are you." Grimmjow said, his frown twisting into a smile that bared his teeth, "I notice you've kept that thing on your face far longer than Kurosaki could." he followed up, lunging for Shinji's sword arm and getting the point of his sword deflected across the guard.

"I'm a lot more experienced than Ichigo," Shinji explained, stepping back in time with several slashes to keep the pressure off of him, "I can last in this thing for about five minutes. It's been about, what, thirty-five seconds?"

"That's good." Grimmjow answered, stopping his sword and turning it to keep Shinji from sliding away. "But I'm sorry to tell you that this will be over faster than that."

Shinji's eyes widened behind the mask, suddenly finding himself thrown back with a crack in his sword. The pressure field Grimmjow had been exerting, which had been strong before Shinji put on the mask and less so after, spiked. His feet skidded against the reishi in the air as he tried to form a platform under his feet. Before he could do so, Grimmjow was on top of him again, swinging his sword down. 

 _Was he really holding back that much? Just how powerful are these Espada_? he wondered as he failed to completely block the strike and wound up with a bleeding wound on his hip. Grimmjow rained more blows down on Shinji, who was only able to react and defend, suddenly finding it a lot harder to hold back the assault and constantly aware of the pervasive weight of the Arrancar's spiritual pressure.

"You might be able to keep that mask on a lot longer than Kurosaki," Grimmjow said while continuing to chip away at Shinji's defense, "but you're lacking the same power behind your attacks!"

"Ichigo _is_ a natural prodigy." Shinji conceded, remembering the teen's unusually high spirit energy, before flash-stepping upward, putting about forty or fifty feet between himself and the blue-haired man. Staying near him the way this battle was going wasn't going to be very productive. "But you're right about one thing, this battle won't take five minutes."

He needed to end this quickly, defeat the opponent and then get Ichigo to some help before the other Arrancars took notice. To that end, if what he needed was power, then he knew how to do that. 

Holding out his right hand with the fingers straightened, Shinji began to draw his spirit energy in and concentrate it into the palm of his hand. A cero began to form, glowing a sinister dark red that bathed the whole of the city block underneath him in red light. It expanded and shrunk several times, charging into a potent blast ready to be fired. He'd never been one for unleashing large amounts of raw power--that was more Kensei's thing--but if he'd judged the full might of Grimmjow's spiritual pressure correctly, this cero should be enough to, maybe not kill him, but definitely cause heavy damage.

Grimmjow was watching with a critical eye from below, frowning again as he seemingly recognized another Menos power, and didn't seem to feel like interrupting. Hey, that suited Shinji just fine. Making sure his aim wasn't going to hit too much of the city, he fired. _Eat shit, Arrancar._ The cero released its payload, sending forth an enormous amount of destructive spirit energy in a wide wave. It was too late to dodge it.

_....What?!_

Before his eyes, the wave stopped. 

_What the hell?!_

The blast from his cero was halted, answered by an equally powerful blast of a vivid red. Shinji watched them collide, the roar of both blasts ringing in his ears, until they burned out and dissipated, leaving the air clear. His eyes widened, taking in the scene. Grimmjow was entirely unhurt, and his hand was smoking again as it retrieved his sword from his waistband, where it had evidently been stowed. 

"You've got that same surprised look in your eyes, soul reaper. Did you expect me to just stand there and let you hit me?"

Was that his cero? But that couldn't be right, even though Shinji knew his eyes weren't lying to him. It had taken him at least eight seconds to charge and fire that cero, and this Espada had countered with his own equally powerful one in half a second--no, less. What the hell kind of power was he seeing here? Was this what Aizen had been working on for so long?

This wasn't over yet. No, of course not. He shouldn't be shaken just because his single, very obvious assault hadn't worked, that would be stupid. Time to really go to work. A strategy was forming itself in his head. He could still win this--he just needed to give it his all.

Getting a tight grip on his sword, Shinji flew downward towards Grimmjow. The Arrancar smiled, swinging his sword, but Shinji was ready. Flash step took him to the other side, swinging for Grimmjow's back--and Grimmjow was ready for him in turn, blocking him over his back. Shinji began to do two things: first, he began to repeat the process of gathering spirit energy for his cero; second, he began speed-blitzing. He flashed around Grimmjow at high speed, lunging with his sword each time, never giving Grimmjow time to counterattack. At first, he had landed successful shallow hits, one on his calf and another on his shoulder, until the Arrancar began adapting and blocked all of his successive swings. 

 _Above, left, right, below, ahead, below, behind, left, above...._ As he went on, no more of his strikes made contact, no matter how fast he lunged or which direction he came from, so he changed it up. Summoning his practice and experience, he changed directions, rotating himself and attacking from different angles again, but upside down or sideways this time, pushing off of the reishi in the air. This time it worked--Grimmjow grunted when Shinji landed a bad cut on his thigh and another on his collarbone, and only narrowly dodged a swing for his neck. But he adapted fast, this one.

It didn't matter, as cutting the Arrancar apart wasn't the plan, blasting him point-blank with the cero was. Of course, he doubted the Espada was just going to let him charge it uninterrupted again--no doubt he could see the red glow forming again in his free hand each time Shinji moved. Of course, he wasn't spending quite so much time on this one--the point-blank range would make up the damage that would otherwise be lost with a weaker cero. But he had to hurry, he was running out of time and power with every move he made. 

 ** _One, two, three, four_** \--

_Now..._

At his next flash, rather than attack, he threw his sword up into the air. He catches the look of surprise on Grimmjow's face, and his arm holding his sword to defend, as he flashes again. Success, then. This time he moved to Grimmjow's front. As Shinji's zanpakuto fell to the earth behind him, he blue-haired man's arm swung for an attack this time, proving again his excellent instincts and reaction speed, but this time time Shinji had him. 

He grabbed Grimmjow's wrist just in time, preventing the sword from splitting his head open. He saw the Espada's eyes widen as he pointed his free palm towards his face, causing it to be bathed in the....

_....Red glow?_

An instant too late, he saw it: the index finger of Grimmjow's sword hand glowing red and pointed at his face. An instant too late, he jerked to the side, attempting to avoid the blast pointed his way. The roaring surge of his cero missed entirely, flying by the Arrancar's head, and he leaped backwards, flash stepping again to make distance.

Shinji himself was not so fortunate. Pain assaulted the left side of his face, and he lifted his hand to examine the damage. A large chunk of his mask on the left side of his face was missing, and he felt a warm, wet trickle down his jaw and neck, his hand coming away covered in blood. His ear had been blasted off.

 _"Damn it..."_ he growled, gritting his teeth. "You! What was that?!" he yelled across the battlefield.

Unimpressed, Grimmjow was about twenty feet away, feeling the side of his head too, but with no visible results from Shinji's cero beyond some singed hair. _Fuck_ , he thought. _If I keep fighting this badly, I'm going to wear down my mask before my time is even up._

"That? That was what we call a _bala_." the Espada answered. "Smaller and a lot weaker than a cero, but more than strong enough to take chunks out of someone, and fired off twenty times faster."

_Twenty times faster? Are you kidding me?_

"There's that look again." Grimmjow raised his hand, the fingertip glowing red again. Shinji moved, fleeing for his life. 

He flew erratically, hearing the _balas_ fired at him tearing apart the city around him. A streetlight that he flew by exploded a moment after he was beyond it. The window of a building was spiderweb cracked as he moved past it. When one flew too close, he began using flash step again to make up the distance. First thing was first, he needed to get his sword back. _I also need another plan_ , he thought as he dived for the glint of metal he saw sticking out of the concrete on the ground. 

He had one other plan, an ace up his sleeve.....he could use it, and he was practically guaranteed a win. But he'd been keeping that ability a secret for over a hundred years. It was highly unlikely he'd be able to get away from this battle without defeating the Espada, yet he couldn't see that happening without pulling out something he knew couldn't be countered. If he didn't kill him in time and the Arrancar fled, he'd undoubtedly take that information, that edge, he'd worked so hard to protect back to Aizen and ruin any advantage he had for when the time came.

 _I'll just have to make sure to kill him_ , he thought as another _bala_ blasted a hole into the ground at his feet, taking his sword and cutting through another one as he jumped up into the air above the city.

"I'm getting tired of this." came the voice from Grimmjow, who was sneering. "You're barely worth the effort."

Shinji did not bother with a response. He had wasted enough of his precious time on banter. He estimated he had about half of his alotted five minutes left, probably less considering all the energy he'd been putting into fighting. He put a hand up to his face, summoning Hollow energy and reforming the part of his mask on the left side of his face that had been blown away. Then he held his sword out horizontally, and called its release command.

" _Collapse, Sakanade_."

The sword transformed, the pommel glowing white and curling around his hand into a wide ring, which floated around his hand. The same white glow ran up the blade, thickening it and created a double-edged blade instead of the standard single edge. Five holes were left along the length of the blade from which the pleasant chemical would flow. The floating blade began to rotate around his wrist, turning counter-clockwise. 

For a few moments, there was silence. Grimmjow didn't seem to know what to make of the odd shikai before him.

"Sakanade? That means 'counter-stroke'. Your shikai's not some stupid attack-reflecting trick, is it?"

"No," he answered calmly, estimating that it was already too late. "It's a little more insidious than that."

He saw the exact instant the effect took place, as Grimmjow's eyes widened in shock. Shinji smirked under his mask.

"What's with that look on your face? Not what you were expecting?" he said, throwing the Arrancar's words back at him. Taking hold of the ring at the end of his sword, he took his stance and lunged. Just as he knew would happen, Grimmjow's sword hand flew in entirely the wrong direction to block and Shinji finally landed a hit, cutting Grimmjow open shoulder to hip. Blood flew out and a drop landed against the eyehole of his mask. _Much better_.

"Wha-- _what_?!" came the yelp from the Espada. "What the hell is this?"

"It's the Inverted World." Shinji explained, leaping to Grimmjow's left and swinging again, watching more blood fly as a deep gash was delivered just under the ribs. "Smell that aroma? It messes with your senses. You may have noticed I'm upside down, you see." _Slash_. Another strike, this time mangling the arm Grimmjow managed to barely put up in front of his face.

" _Yes_ , I noticed you're fucking upside-down! What have you done to my body, you fucking--?"

"Easy with the potty mouth, don't panic." Shinji said, resisting a laugh. He hadn't released Sakanade in a long time, and she was getting as much of a kick out of finally screwing around with this cocky, arrogant ass as Shinji himself was. "This illusion reverses directions. Up and down, left and right, forward and back." As he watched Grimmjow attempt to struggle with this information to arrange a simple swing of his sword, he walked behind him, knowing that Grimmjow would see him walking in front. _Slash_.

" _What the hell--_ " came Grimmjow's alarmed protest as his back was carved open.

"And the direction I'm attacking from? That's reversed too."

With that, he took Sakanade by the hilt, brought it up over the Arrancar's head, and slammed it down. Down the Hollow went, falling towards the earth head-first at high speed.

_Crash!_

What a satisfying sound, the ground shaking as a body slammed into it. Shinji follows, descending to the earth liesurely. What next, the leg?

"H-hang on a second...." came the dazed voice of the Espada as he haphazardly tried to get up on his palms, then his knees, coughing up blood. _Seems all those injuries stacking up was finally starting to get to him, huh?_   "You said the direction you attack from is reversed, but so is the direction I defend from. If they're both inverted, nothing should've changed! This doesn't make sense!"

A chuckle finally escaped Shinji this time as he strolled up, stabbing Grimmjow through the shoulder and sending _Sakanade_ through his chest. "Didn't I mention? I can pick and choose which directions to reverse at which time."

"Y-you.....bas....." Grimmjow started, unable to form the rest of his insult as Shinji pulled the blade out. He strolled away, not feeling any wariness whatsoever. Grimmjow was clearly a very physical fighter, and it was on those types that Sakanade worked best, wreaking absolute havoc with the one thing a brawler trusted most: his reflexes. Keeping up with all of the inverted directions, even assuming Shinji didn't change them, was too much to compute and still maintain any sort of fighting competency. The reflexes always won out, leading to Shinji's win.

"Can you stand?" came his mocking tone, as he watched Grimmjow struggle to his feet. How much difference a minute or so of getting beaten changed. He looked like death.

"Fuck you." Grimmjow spat.

"Don't worry. This next strike'll be the last."

He leaned forward, knee bent, and lunged forward. His _Sakanade_ was aimed for Grimmjow's neck, and was poised to pierce his throat--only to be stopped.

**_SLAM!_ **

"What?!" Shinji repeated for the umpteenth time today and stumbling to regain his balance after being launched back and skidding against what remained of the concrete. What just happened? Grimmjow's sword had came up, in the right direction, with shocking speed and strength that the Arrancar shouldn't still have. He'd then been greeted with a sword hilt straight to the temple, cracking his already worn mask. 

"How did you get your senses back?" he yelled, annoyed in the extreme. Every time he thought he had something, the Espada yanked it out from under him. What was going on?

"I didn't."

Shinji peered forward, examining his opponent. At first, he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, especially as the Arrancar's head was hung low, obscuring his face. Then he saw it. Grimmjow's.....

No. No, no, no, that was not what he was seeing. It couldn't be.

" _That's impossible!_ " Shinji yelled, now losing his cool. It simply couldn't be the explanation. You couldn't just beat _Sakanade_ by closing your eyes. It wasn't that simple! There was no way, no _fucking_ way that his Inverted World, the all-encompassing illusion, could be dispelled by the simple act of _closing one's eyes_. He's sure he hasn't slipped up. Sakanade was still answering his call, and still obeying his instructions down to the letter. The soreness in his temple, already painful due to a fierce strike, was getting worse. "You can't possibly be able to circumvent this power just by closing your eyes!"

Another blast of red flew by his head, proving him wrong. There was no mistaking it, Grimmjow was out from under his spell's influence. Shinji wracked his brains, trying to find some example in his history of having shikai that someone had attempted to fight it off by closing their eyes. No memories came forward. Nobody was _that_ stupid, right? Nobody could seriously expect to fight an opponent of his caliber with their eyes closed, right?

....But then, did that mean it could actually work?

 "Let me tell you something useful," came Grimmjow's voice, drawing Shinji's attention back to the fight. His hand had jammed the sword he was holding into the ground, and was now glowing a bright blue, crackling with electricity. "Your cheap little illusion trick might work pretty well on other opponents. But we Arrancars have an extra sense when it comes to tracking spirit energy. We call it _pesquisa_. It's a bit like radar. S'long as I can track your spirit energy, I don't need to let my eyes do the work."

Shinji did not need to hear anymore. He had to kill Grimmjow now with a method that would work no matter what, _pesquisa_ or no _pesquisa_ , and to that aim, he holds his blade out again, preparing to release his bankai. It would've been a bad loss if Grimmjow had just escaped or something, but now he had to eliminate the Espada before he could return back to Hueco Mundo with, not just information on his shikai, but on how to circumvent it as well. Before he could say the release command, however, he realizes that something's wrong. Grimmjow's hand is raised, but it wasn't pointed at Shinji. It was off to the side, away from him.

"Looks like your little radar isn't as reliable as you thought. Wrong direction, asshole." he spat.

Grimmjow didn't answer, but the glowing blue cero was getting bigger, much bigger than average, and was pulsating erratically. It had Shinji worried, even if it wasn't pointed at him. Just what the hell did Grimmjow think he was aiming at? Shinji followed the line of the arm being held out, looking for something that could draw the Espada's fire.

 _Oh no_.

Shinji's blood ran cold. About five hundred yards away, he spotted a pinprick of orange. Peering closer, he saw that it was Ichigo, one arm over Rukia's shoulder, hobbling away. 

There was no time to try to get Grimmjow to stop charging, if he tried now it would just be pointed in his face. He should've seen this coming, he'd known that Ichigo was the primary target, known this would've happened.

"Allow me to teach you--"

Shinji flashed away before his opponent could finish the sentence, repeating it desperately, trying to get to Ichigo and get him out of the oncoming blast's line of fire. He just had to get them into a ditch or something, was all, _quickly_ \--!. _Fifty feet, one hundred, two hundred, three hundred fifty, six hundred_ \--

Yet even as he ran, he heard the triumphant yell from the Espada that rang in his remaining ear.

" _\--WHAT AN ESPADA'S CERO LOOKS LIKE!!!_ "

_Eight hundred, a thousand, twelve hundred, fourteen hundred--_

He heard the roar of the cero and saw the entirety of the town before him lit up in a bright blue glow. He turned around still a hundred feet from Ichigo, throwing out his own arm with a half-finished cero, trying to counter the blast and shield those two at the same time--

Shinji saw nothing but blue, and felt the wave of energy crash into him.

* * *

* * *

Grimmjow observed his handiwork. Much of the town was obliterated by the Gran Rey Cero, but unfortunately, he can still sense a heartbeat in all three victims, though all three were unconscious. Strolling over, he found that the stranger's Hollow mask had been easily blasted away, as had much of his attire and a fair amount of his flesh as well. Not a pretty sight. All in all, he usually enjoyed fighting, but it seemed he'd been impatient today. Between having his fight interrupted twice and then having to deal with a smartass trickster, he'd eventually decided to just wipe them all out in one go. It was just a shame he hadn't managed to slay any of them with a blast so huge. He would've used more than the few drops of blood, considering how much he had at his disposal, but as much damage as  he'd taken, using that much spirit energy in a cero had seemed an unwise idea.

Of course, he still had to kill them. He walked up to the stranger's body and spat on it, before pointing his index finger down at him. He was just about to put a _bala_ through the man's skull when he felt contact on his arm.

"Let's go. We have what we came here for."

Grimmjow jerked his head to the side, eyes wide. Ulquiorra? He wasn't supposed to be here.

"The hell are you doing here?! Get lost."

"You'll know when we get back to Las Noches. It's time to go."

"One second, I gotta--"

Before he could fire his bala, however, a yellow energy field descended around them. He looked up, seeing a tunnel of that yellow energy: the _Negacion_. He was being pulled back into the garganta, whether he wanted to be or not.

"God damn it, I said wait!"

Too late, though. Didn't Ulquiorra realize he was about to take care of three problems in one go? _Oh, what does it matter_ , he thought, letting the _bala_ fade. None of them could stand up to him, that much was clear by now. The stranger had come close, enough to push him to considering releasing _Pantera_ , but that turned out to be unnecessary. Maybe when Aizen got back and saw how well he operated with one arm, that smug piece of shit would let him reclaim his position that that little pest Luppy had usurped from him.

He sighed, allowing himself to be floated up back into the black void.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize to any Ichigo and Shinji fans. But this is definitely how I'd have preferred that couple of battles to go--for logic and storywriting reasons as much as for personal 'I love Grimmjow' reasons. I tried to be as fair as I could while still keeping Grimmjow's power and competency. Please let me know if I missed any grammar or spelling mistakes in my proofread.


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